He called Charlie Flynn. “I’m coming down there. Make sure Rinaldi sits tight. I can’t get away this week and possibly not next week. I’m due in court on a couple of cases, and I can’t ask for postponements.”
“He won’t go anywhere,” Flynn promised.
“Thanks.” He hung up slowly. What if he was right? Did Gina suspect that Bobby might be in love with her? How would she feel if she knew? Was that the reason she was so hesitant to commit to Rafe, because she returned Bobby’s unspoken feelings? Rafe really, really hated that idea, but he couldn’t ignore it.
And until he knew a whole lot more than he knew right now, maybe it was best if he kept not only some physical distance between himself and Gina, but some emotional distance, as well. Losing her now wouldn’t hurt any less than losing her later, but it might be just a little easier on his pride.
Rafe hadn’t called for three weeks, not since the night he’d left town. Gina was beside herself trying to figure out what it meant. One minute she was furious with him, the next resigned, the next hurt.
“I don’t get it,” she said to Emma. “He was the one who was so anxious for us to see where things would go.”
“He’s probably just busy. He was away from New York for a long time. I’m sure he was swamped with work when he got back. I know the type. I am one,” she admitted ruefully. “When I’m caught up in a case, I don’t see anything else.”
“I suppose,” Gina said, but she didn’t entirely buy it. And if this was the way a future with Rafe was going to play out, with him getting so caught up in work that he forgot all about her, did she want him in her life, anyway?
“If you want to know what’s going on, call him,” Emma advised. “You have his number.”
“No. I’m the one who said I wanted space. I guess I ought to be grateful that he’s giving it to me.”
On top of Rafe’s odd behavior, there was Bobby’s. She hadn’t heard a word from him, either. Nor had he sent a dime to pay off the restaurant’s debts. She was half tempted to fly down to the Caymans and snatch back every penny he had stolen.
Of course, it was an idle threat. She couldn’t go anywhere until Tony got back. He had called the week before and asked if she would mind if he and Francesca extended their stay in Italy.
“Who knows if we’ll ever get back here again,” he’d said. “We’d like to take advantage of our time here now, that is if you’re sure you can stay on in Wyoming.”
“I can stay,” Gina said, praying that Deidre would understand the delay. “You and Francesca enjoy yourselves. How’s her sister?”
“Much improved, thank goodness. Francesca is very relieved. In a few days her sister might even be well enough to go with us to Florence and Venice.”
Gina had sighed. It sounded wonderful. She had loved her time in Italy. “Enjoy every minute of it,” she told Tony. “And take lots of pictures.”
“You are an angel, cara mia. And when I get home, there are things you and I must discuss.”
“What things?”
“Not yet. Face-to-face,” he insisted. “A few more weeks. No more. I don’t want to take advantage of you.”
“You could never take advantage of me,” she told him. “I owe you way too much. If it’s going to be longer than a week or so, though, would you mind if I closed for a few days so I can take a quick trip to New York? Everything’s running smoothly at Café Tuscany right now, but I need to look in on Deidre before she starts feeling totally abandoned. Also, it might help me to decide a few things I’ve been thinking about.”
“Go, of course. Anything that will help you to clarify what you really want. Perhaps we are on the same wavelength,” he said hopefully.
“Perhaps,” she said, though she was not entirely certain what was on his mind. He’d been way too vague for her to interpret his intentions. “I love you guys. I miss you. So do the customers.”
“I doubt that, when they have you,” Tony scoffed. “But it is nice of you to say.”
Ever since that conversation, she had been putting off the trip she had mentioned to Tony. With no word from Rafe and with Deidre still reporting that everything at Café Tuscany was under control, Gina lost the sense of urgency. In fact, the only place she felt truly needed was right here in Winding River. Tony needed her to stay. Karen seemed glad of her company. Her parents were delighted she was nearby, even if they thought it was absurd that she was wasting money on a hotel room when her room at home was empty. Maybe it was crazy, especially now that there was no longer any potential danger that she might be dragging them into her problems with Bobby.
In the end, though, purely by chance she happened across a small apartment with big windows, cozy nooks, comfortable furniture and a surprisingly spacious kitchen filled with light. It was tucked behind a house on Main Street, in what had once been a garage. She spotted the For Rent sign while walking to Tony’s one morning. The next day she stopped by to see it.
Now she stood in the middle of that kitchen and suddenly felt at peace. Without pausing to consider the ramifications, she pulled out her checkbook and turned to the owner.
“I’ll take it,” she told Mrs. Garwood.
“For how long? Are you home to stay?” her mother’s friend asked. “I know that would please your mother.”
Gina’s hand faltered over the check. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Is that a problem? Could we go month to month for now?”
“Normally I wouldn’t agree to that,” Mrs. Garwood said, then smiled. “But for your mother, I will take a chance that you’ll decide you’re back for good.”
“Thank you,” Gina said and wrote the check for a deposit and a month’s rent.
“I’ll leave you alone, then,” Mrs. Garwood said. “If you need anything, just knock on the back door.”
After she had gone, Gina turned slowly. The sun was streaming through the kitchen window. Funny, she thought, recalling Rafe’s words a few weeks earlier. This place felt more like home already than the apartment she’d had in New York for years.
“He’s right over there,” Flynn told Rafe, pointing to an unremarkable-looking man sitting at the poolside bar, his expression glum as he sipped beer.
“That’s Bobby Rinaldi?” Rafe asked, not even trying to hide his shock. He’d expected someone more handsome, but maybe Bobby’s appeal wasn’t obvious to a man.
It had taken Rafe almost a month to fit this trip into his schedule. The holidays were approaching. He wanted this settled so he could spend them with Gina. With any luck at all they could be engaged by New Year’s.
“The one and only. Come on. I’ll introduce you. We’ve had quite a few chats lately.” Flynn hesitated. “Is he going to recognize your name?”
“Most likely.”
“Want me to use an alias?”
Rafe grinned. “No, let’s play it straight. What’s the worst he can do?”
“Run,” Flynn suggested.
“Maybe, but I’m sure you’re faster, and between us we’re not going to let him out of our sight until we get him back to New York.”
“Whatever you say.”
Flynn led the way across the deck, which was crowded with vacationers escaping the oncoming winter in the States. Soothed by bright sun and fancy rum drinks, many of them were half-asleep and oblivious to the sudden tension at the bar when Flynn made the introductions.
Once again surprising Rafe, Bobby looked more disappointed than fearful upon hearing his name. His expression lent credence to Rafe’s theory that he was down here hoping that Gina would be the one to follow him.
“Expecting someone else?” Rafe inquired lightly. “Gina, perhaps?”
Bobby sighed heavily. “What did you do? Forbid her to come, so that you could be her knight in shining armor?”
“She doesn’t know I’m here,” Rafe said.
“Why not?”
“I wanted to clarify a few things before I filled her in.” He gave Bobby a pointed look. “Or before you did that yourself
.”
“I’m not going back,” Bobby said.
“There’s a return ticket in your room that suggests otherwise,” Flynn said.
Bobby frowned at him. “You searched my room?”
“Of course,” Flynn said. “I wouldn’t have been doing my job if I hadn’t.”
“You lousy, no-good creep,” Bobby muttered, but without much venom. He seemed to have lost his enthusiasm for the game.
“Let’s stay focused,” Rafe suggested. “First question, why did you take that money?”
“Because I wanted it,” Bobby said at once. “Why does anyone steal? Because they want something or they need it or just for the thrill of it.”
“Really? You didn’t do a very good job of covering your tracks. The payments to you were right on the books, but you counted on Gina not seeing them, at least not until after you’d taken off, right? So, I have a theory.”
“Do share it,” Bobby said sarcastically.
“You’re in love with Gina,” Rafe speculated, keeping his gaze fixed on Rinaldi’s face. Sure enough there was a flicker of surprise in his eyes. He went on. “She wasn’t interested in you. Now that the restaurant is doing so well, she doesn’t even need you the way she once did. This was a way to get her to pay attention.”
“If that was my plan, it certainly was a bust, wasn’t it?” Bobby said, not quite admitting to it.
“Because she doesn’t love you, except as a friend.” Rafe regarded him with a surprising burst of compassion. “She does care about you, though. She was devastated by your betrayal. For weeks she tried to convince herself that you hadn’t meant to ruin the business, to ruin her. She wouldn’t lift a finger to help me nail you.”
Bobby seemed surprised by that. “She wouldn’t?”
“Not at first. One of the most amazing things about Gina is her sense of loyalty. As time has passed, she has transferred that loyalty to the people you bilked out of money. Every single one of them will be paid back, no matter what it takes. She’s committed to that, but she won’t run to you to get the money. Her days of trusting you are over, Rinaldi. If your plan was to get her to need you, it backfired. She’s found other people to count on.”
“Like you,” Bobby said with a sneer.
“I’m one of them, but there are lots more. It seems to me if you really care about her, though, you’ll go back, return the money and keep her from having to struggle for months or even years to make it all right.”
Bobby stared at him, first with defiance, then eventually in defeat. “What the hell?” he said at last. “I was getting sick of all this sunshine, anyway.”
Rafe nodded. “Think of it this way. You’ll be giving Gina the best Christmas present you could possibly give her, one she’s not likely to forget.”
Chapter Sixteen
Gina could no longer avoid her parents. They had been in the restaurant several times, asking questions, regarding her with undisguised worry. Each and every time, she had been busy enough to avoid responding to the interrogation. But on Thanksgiving Day, she knew that her time had run out.
“For once, you just sit there and let me cook,” her mother commanded the minute Gina entered the kitchen. “I can certainly fix a turkey and stuffing. I’ve been doing it for years.”
“I don’t mind helping,” Gina protested.
“I know that, but you need a break. You’re working too hard trying to avoid making some tough decisions. At least that’s the way it seems to your father and me. Are we right? Is this about Rafe or New York? Not that we aren’t delighted that you’re still here, but it’s not like you to stay away from your business for so long, not when you spent so much time making it successful.”
“A lot’s been happening,” Gina said defensively. “First with Karen, then with Tony and Francesca. I couldn’t abandon them.”
“That’s very noble, I’m sure, but I know you, my darling girl. Tony came back on Monday. Yet you’re still here, still in that little apartment behind Nancy Garwood’s house. That tells me that you’re hiding from something.”
Gina sighed. She had never been able to keep things from her mother, which was one reason she’d been steering clear of the house so much lately.
Gina toyed with a napkin. She folded it into an elaborate swan, then unfolded it and made a simple triangle more in keeping with her mother’s table setting. The silence in the room deepened as her mother stirred the pots on the stove and waited for a reply to her question. Gina recognized that she wasn’t going to be able to avoid giving an answer.
“You know about the problem with the business,” she said. “That’s how Rafe and I met. He thought I had something to do with Bobby stealing that money. He distrusted me.”
“But you fell for him, anyway,” her mother said. “And he for you. So you got past the initial distrust and resentment.”
Gina nodded and reached for a carrot stick just to have something to hold.
“Then you’re not hiding from Rafe?”
“Actually I am, in a way.” She sighed heavily. “It’s complicated.”
“Because you’ve fallen in love with him,” her mother concluded. “And that scares you.”
The carrot stick snapped in half. Gina stared at it in surprise, then looked at her mother with even greater shock. “You can see that?”
Her mother grinned. “Darling, you never were any good at hiding your emotions. Even your father figured this part out. What we didn’t understand was why you didn’t just admit it. It’s obvious he cares about you, too. Whatever complications there were at the beginning will resolve themselves in time.”
“I thought so, too, for a while, but he hasn’t been in touch lately. And now there’s another wrinkle. It just came up this week when Tony got back.”
“What’s that?”
“Tony asked me to go into partnership with him.” She took a deep breath, knowing that her parents were going to be delighted by the news, though they would never try to influence her decision. “He and Francesca want to spend more time in Italy. He says eventually the business would be mine, if I want to stay here.”
Just as she’d expected, her mother was wise enough not to reveal her reaction. Instead, she asked, “How do you feel about that?”
Gina permitted herself a slight grin. “I really, really want to do it. Despite all of the chaos the past few months, I’ve loved being here. Until I came back I hadn’t realized how much I missed you guys and my friends and even Winding River. I really don’t want to live in New York anymore.”
“Which brings us back to Rafe,” her mother guessed.
“Exactly.”
“There’s only one way to figure out what to do,” she told Gina. “You have to go to New York, settle things with Rafe and with Café Tuscany, then make a final decision. You can’t make such an important decision in a vacuum, certainly not from here, when everything involved is across the country.”
“You’re absolutely right,” Gina said, reaching the same conclusion. “That is exactly what I have to do. If I can get a flight, I’ll go in the morning.”
Unfortunately, because of the holiday, she couldn’t get a flight until the middle of the following week. When she called Rafe’s office from the airport, they told her he was out of town on business and not expected back for a day or two.
“Is this Lydia?” Gina asked.
“Yes.”
“This is Gina Petrillo. When he gets back, will you tell him I’m in New York and that I’d like to see him?”
“You’re back? That’s fantastic. I know you’ll be the first person he wants to see when he gets back. I’ll tell him,” she said. “I’m glad you’re here.”
Gina wasn’t quite sure what to make of that. Since the next stop on her agenda was Café Tuscany, she put off considering Lydia’s words until later and took a cab straight from the airport to the restaurant.
When she walked through the front door, waves of pride and nostalgia washed over her. The restaurant was every bit
as elegant and tasteful as she’d remembered. She had accomplished that, she and Bobby.
As she stood there basking in the good memories, Deidre stepped out of the kitchen and caught sight of her. Her eyes lit with delight. “You’re back,” she said, striding across the room to hug Gina. “I am so glad to see you. We have really missed you around here.”
“It doesn’t look like it. The place looks terrific.”
Deidre waved off the compliment. “The cleaning crew keeps it spotless. Are you here to stay?”
“We need to talk about that,” Gina said. “Can you come into the office? Is Ronnie here?”
“He’s in the kitchen. Shall I get him?”
“Do that and bring some cappuccino with you,” Gina suggested. “I need a jolt of caffeine.”
When the two of them were settled into the chairs opposite her desk in the cramped office, she announced, “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking while I’ve been away.”
Deidre’s face fell. “You’re going to close it down, aren’t you? You’re going to stay in Wyoming and close this place down. I knew it when you didn’t come back right away. That Tony guy you were always talking about made you an offer too good to refuse.”
“Whoa!” Gina said, chuckling at the rush of words. “You’re only half-right. I am considering the possibility of staying in Wyoming.”
Ronnie Carson, a quiet young man with a good head on his shoulders, as well as tremendous potential as a chef, studied her intently before he spoke. “But you have a plan for this place, don’t you? You’re not just going to shut the door and walk away.”
“No, but whether or not it is feasible depends on the two of you and what you want.”
As Deidre and Ronnie exchanged a look, Gina thought she caught a glimpse of something more than colleagues awaiting word on their fate. She had a feeling they had discovered each other while she was away. There was a distinct stirring of romance in the air. Maybe they’d wind up like Tony and Francesca, bound not only by love, but by working together at something they loved.
To Catch a Thief Page 19
